Vague policies, inconsistent advice given by AAA employees

I was in a car accident over the summer for which I determined to be 0% at fault. The AAA tow truck operator recommended my car be taken to one of AAA's "immediate repair centers". Without knowing my alternatives, I agreed to this. I unfortantely signed the estimate authorizing the repairs, not realizing that a/the repairs were almost as much as the Kelly Blue Book value of my car and b/the labor rates the shop used were over 25% lower than standard market/dealer rates. AAA informed me that they determine "Total Loss" thresholds on a case-by-case basis and have no written policy on this. In this instance, the repair estimate would have had to be 115% of Kelly Blue Book value in order for my car to be considered a Total Loss, which I believe to be a highly unusual market practice (most companies determine Total Loss at 70%-100% of KBB). As a result, my car was repaired by this mediocre shop AAA recommended and now I am stuck with a car that has constant problems and little to no resale value.

I am very unhappy with how AAA handled my claim (I am in the Southern California region). I would encourage those who are insured by this company to NEVER use their "immediate repair centers" or to at least get a second estimate - AAA claims that repairs will be authorized faster, but in my case the shop ran over by 2 weeks anyway and i was forced to pay out-of-pocket for the rental during this period. For prospective AAA clients, ask them up-front about their Total Loss policy before purchasing a policy.

Incompetence

My husband had a rollover accident with his truck on January 12, 2009. It was totaled though luckily my husband was not injured.

It is now March 28, 2009 and we STILL do not have our settlement money. They paid to the credit union what we owed for the balance of the loan, but there is still a balance of $1800 for the value.

They mailed a check to us in FEBRUARY for this $1800 amount, but it was addressed to the WRONG NAME. We called them and per instruction sent it back promptly, then they did NOTHING for several weeks. On March 19th I called and spoke to someone who said it was mailed on March 9th. This turned out to be a lie because finally I called last Monday, March 23rd and spoke with our total loss agent who said "Oh, I will get that out tomorrow via overnight mail so you will get it on Wednesday."

It did not arrive on Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday. I called on Friday - of course, our agent is gone until Tuesday. The person I did speak with gave us the tracking number for the "package" with the check, which was mailed via UPS. Apparently it was mailed out via overnight mail on Tuesday, but has been "In Transit" since Wednesday. Today I called UPS and they confirmed it has been officially lost. I called AAA and no one there could help me - I have to call back Monday. THEY have to call UPS and file a claim for the lost package.

The people I did speak with at AAA today were rude and unsympathetic and I ended up in tears during the call. The MANAGER I spoke with in the claims department - Ms. Jones - was intent on insisting OVER AND OVER AGAIN that there was nothing she could do when in fact there was - finally she admitted she could update our records with the UPS information and have a manager in the loss dept work on our case right away Monday morning, then call us back. And she could have been somewhat sympathetic and understanding.

We were going to shop for a new vehicle this weekend and use that money to make a down payment. Even though UPS is the irresponsible party at this point, AAA should have realized long ago that this money should just be directly deposited into our bank account. I will have to demand this from AAA on Monday.

I've made so many calls to AAA about this claim in the last two and a half months it's unbelievable. And we've NEVER had an accident before or needed anything from AAA until now. Customers should NOT be treated like this.

NONE

bad customer service, take too long to get back to you, lie about what they have reported, lie about what the other party reported, leave no recourse for decisions they have made, charge too much and don't help their members.

AVOID! AAA/CSAA are TERRIBLE

They were not backing me up even though I have been a AAA member for many years. They decided my alignment problem was not due to an accident I had had, even though it was. They just didn't want to pay for it. The claims adjuster lied about what she had reported. Her supervisor never returned my calls. It's as if everyone there has a plan of action to pay the least on whatever the case may be. I had to drive my car with the alignment being thrown off, the suspension being drastically damaged and the tire spindle loose because they didn't want to fix it. They also omitted to note that the person who hit me was on the phone (therfore making my claim even less valuable). They sumbitted only partial information to the body shop that repaired my car. Not to mention that their customer service was terrible, and I spoke with 5 different representatives! Oh but they LOVE to charge like crazy for their memberships!

In the end, the other party admitted full liability, otherwise I would've had to pay $861 out of pocket!

AVOID!!!

Nothing

Everything

My wife and I first started our AAA membership and auto insurance in December of 1999. My agent was Jill Pasch out of the Redlands CA office and at this time I had just switched from a company called Freeway Insurance. I was required to have an SR-22 filing at the time and was assured beyond a doubt that AAA would take care of it. Evidently, it was not taken care of and in early January of 2000 I received a driver’s license suspension notice from the DMV. I contacted Jill who was very apologetic and promised to take care of it. Ten days later, I received a notice from the DMV that my license was reinstated. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize at the time that I now had a suspended license violation on my record; which would cause problems later.

December 2001, Family Vacation
I had been recently assigned a new agent, Mr. Dan Banagas out of the Redlands office. At this time I switched my homeowners insurance to AAA. In early December, my family and I planned a motor home vacation. I took off 10 days from work and on Monday December 10th reserved a motor home through El Monte RV to be picked up on Wednesday the 12th. El Monte RV informed me that I needed to have my insurance company send over the proper paperwork. I contacted Mr. Banagas and was told it would be taken care of. I called him again the next day to make sure and again was reassured it was taken care of. On Wednesday morning, my wife, son, and I went to El Monte RV to pick up our rental and were informed that no insurance paperwork had arrived. We subsequently had to postpone our vacation for a day. Mr. Banagas informed me that he had directed a “new guy” to send in the paperwork and the individual had dropped the ball. I immediately called AAA to express my “displeasure” with Mr. Banagas and was assigned a new agent, Mr. Steve Wicks.

November 2002, New Home
We moved from our previous home in Bloomington to a new home in Devore Heights. This was a wonderful change and we were very excited. I called my AAA agent Steve Wicks and informed him of our tentative move and was promised that our insurance needs would be taken care of. Surprise, escrow was held up due to no homeowners insurance being filed. I called Mr. Wicks and informed him he needed to take care of this situation immediately. I had to drive into Redlands again and sign more paperwork in order to close my escrow.

December 2002, Rate Increase
I received my AAA auto insurance bill and was shocked, my bill had gone from $942 annually to $1729. I immediately called AAA and was informed that the underwriters had caught up with my suspended license violation. I was also told I was lucky the Auto Club hadn’t forced me to pay the higher premium over the years this violation has been on my record. This is the same suspended license violation that was a direct result of AAA’s failure in filing the SR-22 when I initially changed from Freeway Insurance to the Auto Club. At this point in time my stress was indisputably at an unhealthy level. I called Jill Pasch and left numerous messages stating that she needed to clean this up for me but received no reply. I called Dan Banagas and Steve Wicks to see if they would do anything to help me with my problem (Mr. Banagas merely stated that he wasn’t my agent anymore), and I called a supervisor in Redlands, Tracy Tramell. After months of stress, headaches, and phone conversations, my premium was finally adjusted accordingly.

January 2003, DMV Reissue Fee
A few weeks after the premium fiasco, a letter came in the mail requiring me to pay a $60.00 license reissue fee to the DMV due to the suspended license violation, which also forces me to go back in and take the written test on my next drivers license renewal this December. I actually tried to switch insurance carriers at this time but due to the violation on my record, could not find anyone to cover me at a decent rate. The anger started again and I physically went in to the Redlands AAA office. This time, I was sent to talk to a different agent, Sue Ingley. Finally, some help from a professional and sincere individual. Within 3 weeks, my DMV record was cleared and I was refunded the $60.00 reissue fee. I still have to go in and take the test in December, but am too tired to complain at this point.

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Mercury, much better

always taken care of my claims, either my fault or not(mostly not mines)

$$$ too much

i been with AAA for more then 20 years, i have 2 cars insuraned with them. they have always taken care of all my claim promptly. only reason i'm switching is AAA charges me 2650 per year vs. 1900 for most company. but if you don't mind paying over price insurance company. they are good but i dont like to over pay

Affiliations with local body shop, who committed to accept AAA's payment. No need to get competing estimates.

None so far.

I've been insured with AAA for six years. They collected a lot of money from me before our first claim in November, but they came through. We contacted a AAA-affiliated body shop, Paul Brothers in Philadelphia. Their rep said "leave everything to me" and he did it. He arranged an on-site estimate, submitted it to AAA and committed to accept the AAA payment. The car was still drivable so we drove it in and had it back in 10 days, repaired competently, for the cost of the deductible. Very smooth.

Naturally, they jacked up the rates the next year, but we knew that was coming.

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AAA emergency road service.

none

all

AAA sucks. I got hit BY a AAA insured driver and only my mirro was damaged and AAA was to cheap to pay for the damage. $40 worth....thats it.

not cheap;
aaa is simply a broker; you have to talk to another company to do anything outside of paying, therefore it is difficult to talk to a live person.

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statefarm, workman's auto

I can't think of any. This company is absurd.

Bait and switch on prices. You can't trust what you are told. They lie and don't seem to know what they are doing.

I purchased insurance through AAA for myself and my 20 year old son as they had good rates. I was quoted a price of $1800 anually for my son and paid the down payment and first month. Within two weeks we received a letter stating that they had misquoted the policy and it was going to cost $2400 per year! A 33% increase!!! I was pretty PO'd but left it up to my son to either pay or get something cheaper.

Another week passed and I got an email from the agent saying that the underwriters wanted to inspect my car and I would get a call to set the appt. A couple of weeks passed with no calls from anyone about an inspection and the next thing I know I get a letter in the mail saying that my policy was being cancelled with no explanation as to why. I called the agent and he told me it was because my vehicle had not been inspected as they had been unable to get a hold of me by phone. By then I decided I'd better look elsewhere and just keep AAA til the cancellation date. A few days later I got another cancellation notice with a different cancellation date. This time I was being cancelled for non-payment.

I didn't recall ever seeing a bill so I called their office to find out what happened. I was told the bill had been sent two weeks after we first took out the policy. I looked through everything I got from them and there was no bill. I then found the identical packet that was sent to my son. It had not yet been opened. I opened it and looked through it and there was no bill. There was a copy of the policy information and the page that shows the complete policy price and what is covered, but no monthly bill.

I was so PO'd by that time that I immediately called another insurance company and after getting a new policy emailed the agent at AAA to cancel my policy. He responded by saying I would have to contact the main office to cancel my policy. I didn't bother. By that time it was only about a week til they were going to cancel it themselves.

About three weeks later I got a voice mail on my cell phone telling me that my policy was being cancelled for non-payment. The same cell phone # they were unable to reach me about the inspection of my car.

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I had Met Life for years with no problems and also Progressive. Now I have State Farm and had none of these problems.

AAA name

independently franchised agencies use the AAA name, and provide wildly inconsistent results.

We insured our cars through AAA in Sacramento, mainly because we were satisfied with the AAA roadside assistance service. Unfortunately, as other reviews have stated, the AAA name is used as a front for a franchised insurance brokerage, and therefore, customer serivce and quality are wildly inconsistent.

We have never had any traffic tickets, violations, accidents or claims, yet every six months, they send us a letter stating that our policy is about to be cancelled. The first time this happened, I called our agent, Kerri Berg, and she told me not to worry about it, and that I would be getting a renewal notice soon. Well, it never came, and suddenly we went three weeks without insurance coverage without even know it.

The second time this happened, I asked our agent, Kerri Berg, to cancel our renter's insurance because we moved into a house. She went ahead and cancelled both our renter's and auto policies, and then refused to admit her mistake.

We'll probably keep our AAA membership, but definitely ditch the insurance product. It's too bad, because I'm sure the insurance product is good, it's just that our agent and our franchise were horrible.

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Farmer's Insurance
AIG